About

Elvis Vegas
Hey everyone,

My name is Elvis. I am an affiliate manager at ABC Network Company, one of the smallest affiliate networks on the WWW. I’m the 7th worst revenue generating dude at the company (heh…) and the 15th most recent hire.

I first started doing online affiliate marketing in 2008. At the time I couldn’t believe that a guy named John Chow could write on a blog and make over $100,000/month. It seemed too good to be true, but I believed that it might be possible. I felt that if I just believed that 1% of what Chow was doing was possible, then I could grow that 1% to a bigger number. One percent of $100K is $1,000. Did I think it was possible to earn $1000 in a month from a blog? You betcha.

Feeling pumped up by Chow’s inspiring blog I began to do some online research to discover that there were other dudes on the internet who were running blogs that made them rich. One guy by the name of Steven Pavlina had caught my brother’s attention with his daily blog post about Polyphasic Sleep. He also posted his revenue every month and was making well over $50K each month.

So I started a blog and in my first month I earn $0.21 on Adsense. Online marketing is one of those things where even if you’re sucking at it you still feel good about what you’re doing. Even though I made less than a dollar by the end of my 2nd month, I believed there must be a little-known trick that I didn’t know… and so I kept trying.

On the inside I was on fire. I believed it was possible and I didn’t shy to tell my family how I felt. But those around me didn’t seem to agree with me. My brothers ignored me and my mom would ask me things like “El, why don’t you get your head out of the clouds?” I guess brothers didn’t bother asking me this because they already believed that I was crazy.

Elvis Vegas on Travian…

In December 2008 I was playing an online browser game called Travian. I was really interested in the game and borderline addicted. The game was all about team-work and joining an alliance to work with other players and attack opponents. The game ran on servers that were all synced to work at the same time (server time). The most important resource was in fact time.

I soon discovered that I was really good at the game and could teach other people to play it. In fact it wasn’t so much that I was good at the game… I was just so excited to play the game that I spent hours researching new strategies. I spent days testing new tactics. I would get up at 3:30am just to send my troops out on a raid because I was so excited and interested in the game.

So I wrote an ebook and put it for sale on a very very ugly landing page. About 4 days before I put the book for sale I remember having a conversation with my dad where he was telling me how crazy I was to sell it for $11. He kept asking me, “Elvis, which is better:

300 sales at $2 each, or

10 sales at $11 each?

What he seemed to forget to take into account was that I would be perfectly happy making $110 a day selling my book and tweaking the sales funnel so that I could get those numbers higher without selling hundreds of books every hour. He didn’t seem to get that…

This is important. If you’re a media buyer, or a mailer, or a PPC guy the concept is the same: Once you make the first sale it’s game over: You’re sold on it. From there it’s just a tweaking game.

After one day of announcing the PDF ebook to forum readers (and then getting banned from the forum) I made $77. I realized that $11 was not enough for the eBook, so I created a $24.99 upsell to the $11 ebook… and everyone just bought the upsell!

Eventually I realized that the best way to sell my eBook, Tips 4 Travian, was to build a newsletter and sell a $24.99 ebook in PDF form, and then offer an upsell of $47 for the video version. This ebook was a great success and paid for my tuition and expenses for one year.

About Failing…

Unfortunately that same year I also failed 2 of my core courses at McGill University because I was too busy running my Tips 4 Travian business. So I closed the business and focused on school 100% so I could graduate.

After I finished university and left my Travian ebook business on autopilot I decided it was time for some change. It was time to expand my horizons and move to a new country to learn about a different part of the world.

About Teaching…

I wanted to go to a place I knew nothing about so that I could learn a new culture and way of life. So I chose to go to South Korea to teach English. While teaching English in a High School I learned how to outsource online using sites like Freelancer, eLance, Guru and oDesk (these have different names now). I made iPhone gaming apps. I never made more than $1-2K/mo from these games, but it was a fun experience that made me realize that if I had had a team in place back when I was in college… I probably wouldn’t have failed those courses!

After teaching in Korea for 2 years I realized that it was time to go back to Canada and start a career online. After working for the bank for a year I quit since I could see that it wasn’t for me. I met a guy who was making $90K/mo sending emails, and wanted to be like him.

For 2 years I, Elvis Vegas was a mailer. It wasn’t full time… it was over time! I mailed, and worked part time in order to pay my bills. I wasn’t a very good mailer, but I learned a lot about the industry and got connected to all kinds of affiliate managers…

About The Affiliate Manager Career

And that’s where I met my account manager at a network I liked. We had a short chat one afternoon and the next morning there was a job offer waiting in my Inbox. I accepted to join Mundo as an affiliate manager.

Many affiliates often ask me why did I give up mailing and affiliate marketing and join the workforce. Working in an office can be construed as boring if you don’t like it. If I was working for myself I would have a team, and ideally I would work in an office with that team. Would that be any different from what I am doing now? Elvis Vegas

I like working with people, helping them make more money and build their business. When you run an affiliate marketing business, or any online business, you can’t spend as much time doing your favorite tasks. There are other things that need attention: legal, accounting, financing, budgeting, planning, strategy, etc.

Almost every hour of my day is spent doing something I enjoy. I wake up in the morning and make a tasty breakfast… then I clear the kitchen, something I love doing because I like working in a clean environment. On the way to work I always do a crossword puzzle from the newspaper. I’ve gotten quite good at these nifty little puzzles. Elvis Vegas

When I arrive at work I spend a 30-60 minutes chatting with one of my coworkers who was also an affiliate back in the day. Then I work for a solid 4hrs. During these 4hrs I use spreadsheets, emails, Skype messages and a few other tools to keep everything organized and moving along. Elvis Vegas

Afternoons I play pool, evenings I play badminton and squash. My point in telling you about my daily activities is to remind you that as long as you are happy with at least 80% of the activities you do each day then you’re living a successful life. Would I write this book if I hated my life as an affiliate manager? Probably not. Would I be writing anything online at a time like now, it’s 11:29pm right now, or would I doze off in front of the TV during my evenings? I’d have to like this in order to do it at this crazy hour! Last night I was up until 1:24am! Elvis Vegas

I’m proud of the direction my life is going and I want you to feel the same way. Don’t hesitate to hit me up on Skype and ask me for tips about how to enjoy your day or how I stay in a good mood throughout the day. Elvis Vegas